Sherman says there is uncertainty on how Iran’s Arak nuclear reactor could be used for a peaceful purpose.

A U.S. of­fi­cial said on Wed­nes­day that the Obama ad­min­is­tra­tion is con­sid­er­ing ask­ing the Ir­a­ni­an gov­ern­ment to take down part of its Arak nuc­le­ar re­act­or as part of a long-term deal on the coun­try’s nuc­le­ar pro­gram.

A fi­nal agree­ment “in­cludes a lot of dis­mant­ling of their in­fra­struc­ture,” Wendy Sher­man, the State De­part­ment’s un­der­sec­ret­ary for polit­ic­al af­fairs, said dur­ing an in­ter­view with PBS. “Be­cause, quite frankly, we’re not quite sure what you need a 40-mega­watt heavy-wa­ter re­act­or, which is what Arak is, for any ci­vil­ian peace­ful pur­pose.”

Fuel pro­duc­tion at the heavy-wa­ter re­act­or, which is cur­rently un­fin­ished, has been put on hold un­der the in­ter­im agree­ment reached be­fore Thanks­giv­ing.